UK needs new party to stop 'catastrophic' Brexit, says former David Davis aide

A former chief of staff to David Davis has said Brexit is a catastrophe that must be stopped and called on centrist MPs to form a new party.

James Chapman, who worked for the Brexit secretary for a year as the Department for Exiting the European Union was set up, suggested the new party should be called the Democrats and claimed some “very interesting people” wanted to be involved.

Chapman, who previously worked for George Osborne, said anti-Brexit MPs such as Anna Soubry, Grant Shapps and Mark Harper had more in common with party opponents such as Rachel Reeves and Vince Cable than “Owen Paterson et al”.

The former aide, who worked for Davis until the 2017 general election, went on to tweet at Chris Grayling, the transport secretary:

Hello @chrisgraylingmp - can you confirm airlines won't be able to sell 80% of flights from next March? How are bilateral deals coming?

Chapman also revealed that hundreds of lorry bays would be needed to deal with extra border checks when the UK leaves the EU, which will “mean compulsory purchase and demolition of lots of Brexit voters’ houses”, and claimed none of the thousands of extra customs officers needed had been hired.

Chapman’s former boss Osborne has been one of the most vocal critics of the government’s Brexit policy. As chancellor Osborne warned before the referendum that a budget of tax rises and spending cuts would be needed to cope with the impact.